Love Stronger Than Logic
by PenPatronus
Summary: A missing moment from the season three episode "The Pain in the Heart." Brennan tells Hodgins who Gormagon's apprentice is. Drama, angst, friendship. Guest-starring Booth and Zack.


**Summary: **A missing moment from the season three episode "The Pain in the Heart." Brennan tells Hodgins who Gormagon's apprentice is. Drama, angst, friendship. Guest-starring Booth and Zack. Written and posted 8.30.08, before season four of "Bones."

**Love Stronger Than Logic**

PenPatronus

Jack Hodgins entered the hospital with a trophy in one hand and a bowl of macaroni-and-cheese in the other. He slowed and concentrated on arranging his facial expression and body language. The last thing he wanted to do was upset Zack. The kid had enough to worry about and needed to focus on his recovery, not Hodgins' anxiety about the Gormagon case. _I can't believe Cam doubts me…_ Jack reflected. _After all we've been through… _Jack shook the thoughts away. He needed to be present and smiling for Zack, and the "King of the Lab" trophy would cheer them both up.

Hodgins turned into the hallway that led to Zack's room just in time to see a doctor and two FBI agents enter it, and Booth and Brennan leave. Booth looked like a bull seeing red: wild eyes, set jaw, flaring nostrils. He had an arm around Brennan, and she was leaning her cheek against his shoulder. She had obviously been crying.

Hodgins felt his stomach bottom out. He broke into a sprint, depositing the macaroni and the trophy on a hospital bench. "What is it? Is Zack ok?"

"Hodgins—" Booth reached out to stop him, but Hodgins pushed past them to the window. From the hospital bed inside, Zack looked up and met Hodgins' eyes. Physically he hadn't changed since Jack had last seen him: in pain, bandaged and weak, but healing. But his eyes…

_Oh God_, Jack thought.

Something was terribly wrong. Zack looked _defeated_. And when he saw Hodgins he looked…ashamed. Zack rolled onto his side, turning his back to them. His shoulders began to shake.

A solid tug from Booth, and Hodgins was sitting beside the macaroni. Jack fought for a second, but Booth held him down. "What the hell is going on?"

Brennan's eyes were red. She put one palm on Booth's shoulder and said, "You should go. I'll tell him." Booth nodded. He opened his mouth to say something but seemed to think better of it. Jack watched him jog down the hall and disappear out the door.

"Tell me what, Dr. Brennan?

Brennan knelt in front of him with an apologetic look. Hodgins was reminded of the expression on his sister's face when she'd told him their father had died.

"The apprentice told us where to find Gormagon. Booth and the FBI are going after him tonight."

Hodgins blinked a pair of wide eyes. "Sweets?"

Brennan shook her head.

"Not Cam!"

"No." Her face morphed from apology to pity.

"Well I know it's not me…guess I should've guessed that Angela was secretly a cannibalistic serial killer…" Hodgins chuckled and held onto the joke as long as possible, stretching it into oblivion. Brennan just looked at him. She didn't blink until his smile faded. But it did more than fade: it retreated. "You're joking, right?" Slowly, cautiously, Brennan placed her hands on top of Hodgins,' and squeezed. Jack felt her cold touch and the nervous vibrations of her fingers. "How, uh…" Hodgins cleared his throat. "How'd you figure it out?"

Brennan sat beside him, moving the trophy into her lap. And she told him. She took him through her findings step by step, and recreated their conversation with Zack. Hodgins asked questions when appropriate, like it was any other case about any other perpetrator. Then they sat in silence for so long that they both got hungry and started in on the now cold macaroni. Hodgins broke the silence.

"He saved our lives, Brennan, remember? Zack was the one who figured out where the Gravedigger buried us."

She nodded.

"Zack has helped solve hundreds of murders and—and prevented countless more—we all have—does…will that count for anything? Telling Booth where to find Gormagon—will that help Zack?"

Brennan swallowed, but her voice still came out raspy. "I don't know."

"Because he could've—if he wanted to, if he really was a _bad_…guy…he could've done a lot more damage!" Hodgins got to his feet and began to pace the width of the hallway. "He could've killed me in that chemical explosion—he could've taken out the entire Jeffersonian, destroyed all the evidence of the case and everyone who knew about it…Even without his hands he could've somehow incapacitated or distracted Cam or—or Angela and escaped the hospital…"

Brennan kept nodding.

Hodgins suddenly stopped pacing and stared down at his boots. "I left Angie alone with him…"

Brennan spoke up: "He didn't want any of us hurt, Hodgins, that's the point—that's what's…redeeming. You should've seen the look on Zack's face when he realized that he valued your life over Gormagon's agenda." Brennan licked her lips as she watched Hodgins' reaction. "Zack's love for _you_ saved us all, Hodgins. Zack's love for you will bring down Gormagon."

Tears settled in the corner of Hodgins' eyes, reading to strike and sting. "He was so insistent that he be the one to…I should've known something was up…We should've tried to figure out how that package got into the lab…" Hodgins sat beside Brennan with his face inches from hers. "Zack was my friend, my roommate, he was like a little brother to me, I should've known he was…lost. I should've seen something like this coming…" Hodgins blinked, and sighed. "Jesus I said "was"…it's not like he's dead…"

Brennan only nodded again.

Hodgins wiped his face with his hands and sighed. "I, uh, I better go home and tell Angie."

"I better let Sweets out of that holding cell."

"Bet he's pissed."

"Undoubtedly."

"I'd trade with you, though…Angela will be…"

"Brokenhearted."

"Undoubtedly."

Hodgins got to his feet but suddenly rounded on Brennan. "Can I talk to him?"

Brennan shrugged. "Booth didn't say…Are you sure you want to? The Zack we knew is gone—"

Hodgins held up a hand. "Brennan."

"Right." She sighed: a quick, exhausted exhale. And then she left, and Hodgins slowly walked into the ICU.

The two agents stood as silent sentinels on either side of the doorframe. Zack had fallen into an anxious sleep of frowning and squirming. In his sleep he looked like Zack, like the kid half his age, and innocent. He looked incapable of what he'd done.

"I'm sorry, Zack," Hodgins whispered. "I don't know what I'm sorry for, but I am."

And Jack went home to Angela.

**End**


End file.
